Hi all,
Posted a similar post in the ITM forum also.
I’m looking for folk music (not only irish) played in a jazzy style.
Or folk music played with interesting chords, something like Flook, Micheal McGoldrick, ecc.
Any suggestion should be very appreciated, thanks!
Niall Keegan comes to mind seems like music Scotland is the only place to get his Don’t Touch the Elk album.
Sylvain Barou would be another player to listen to.
Yep, Niall Keegan. A taste here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMqfw3tD2Zk
On his CD, and the track on Wooden Flute Obsession, (3:29 Reels) Dunmore Lasses/My Love is in America takes you on a wild ride.
This question has been asked many times before
and I usually recoil from the lameness of the examples
put forth as “jazz” or (please don’t let me wretch) “jazzy”.
Traditional Irish, Scottish or what have you players noodling
around bending their notes, playing pentatonic, pentatonic minor
and whole note scales is not jazz. It might be masterfully conceived
and virtuosically played but it ain’t jazz,
This is the only recording that I’ve ever heard that meets any part of
the description. Not because of the melody players who are fabulous,
but the rhythm section who are in fact dyed in the wool jazz players.
So here it is. Traditional Irish music (mostly) with jazz accompaniment
played by real jazz players.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9bQ7NrOpIc&list=PL-leiLnhSIa7pk_0alWc1ob_iSEaJAMo6&index=5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayrqDiq7dUI&index=2&list=PL-leiLnhSIa7pk_0alWc1ob_iSEaJAMo6
p.s.
Regina Carter who plays violin on some
of these cuts isn’t really a jazz player either.
She’s a classically trained violinist that plays
the above mentioned scales and calls it jazz.
Don’t forget Cormac Breatnach. His groups Meristem and Deiseal were very “jazzy.” The problem with fusion of Jazz and Irish Trad is the absence of what us Jazzbos call the “blue notes.” Chromatic instruments are pretty much essential to jazz. The basic chord progressions in jazz (blues, rhythm changes, etc.) all require maj and min 7th chords/scales played in progressions. The modal character of Irish trad and the chromatic nature of jazz are kind of like oil and water. I love both genres, play both genres, but keep them separate. Just my opinion.
There’s plenty of blue notes in Irish music particularly in piping.
But the chromatic approach is lacking and that’s part of its charm
for me. The modal part is where they meet. But as you say, keep em separate.
Agree with you oleorezinator, perhaps I have to refine better my request.
There are many musicians or groups who use very interesting chords in their music, a lot of major seventh, ninth and chords substitutions. I’m interested in this music. Some example are in tunes by Flook, Mike McGoldrick and Cormac Breatnach (as suggested above).
This is not jazz, it’s true, but usually there is a sort of “swing” in this music and I don’t know how to name this kind of music…
I liked a lot the your links to the Celtic Jazz Collective, thank you.
Unseen122 and kkrell, great suggestions, thank you!
Hack with a Flute, yes I know Cormac Breatnach and i like it A LOT!
Here goes a bit of the stuff I usually listen to, sort of “crossroads” music, not only Irish:
Fraser Fifield
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwgW1jJ4NiA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d79_DJP5XEw
Neil Yates, Five Countries is fabulous
https://youtu.be/y2KMC02WeE4
Check also Philippe Barnes’s Madrid Sessions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ0TEHgLlf0
Halton Quartet (Angus Lyon & Ruaridh Campbell 18 months later is great too)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iukm5A8d5NQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdzzGhUbbpg
Chris Stout & Catriona McKay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KbeymJS9EU
This is jazzy but not folksy, but it sounds very good on the Irish flute.
Can’t believe this hasn’t been mentioned yet
Thanks Maeloc, I’ve found the Halton Quartet album on Spotify, some very beautiful tunes here!
Beautiful, thanks
Here are a couple of my favorites ~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bmOWV5F-Ro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s05PntwH07g
Not sure it"s Jazz ~ But It’s pretty nice.
Keep forgetting to mention these guys on threads like this; did so on the session the other day. Anyway Ensemble Eriu is one of my favorite trad bands of recent years; only so much flute content (the bass player plays some flute and whistle) but definitely jazzy (like full on clarinet solos and everything!)
Edited to fix typo and add to post.
Jazz is a pretty big tent. There’s a lot of trad jazz that doesn’t fit your model, and bands like Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra that don’t fit my father’s model. They’re all dyed-in-the-wool jazz players. I like them all, even if they can’t be pigeonholed.
Jazz is a pretty big tent. There’s a lot of trad jazz that doesn’t fit your model, and bands like Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra that don’t fit my father’s model. They’re all dyed-in-the-wool jazz players. I like them all, even if they can’t be pigeonholed.
Jazz is a huge tent and I like lots of different wrinkles in that fabric.
My problem is with people who noodle and call it jazz when previously
they’ve played nothing but basic diatonic music. Like when classically
trained players start to improvise. Nu age Muzak and celtoid noodling
have a lot in common.